Title: You Can't Go Home Again
Author: Spikesgirl58
Character/Pairing: Ducky
Genre: gen
Rating: G
Challenge: Sad
Spoilers: None that I'm aware of
Warnings: Again, none that I'm aware of
My thanks to Sparky for cleaning this up.
Ducky walked through the empty rooms, his mind wracked with memories of his mother's decline.
"Donald, just once I wish you'd listen and get married before I'm too old to dance a Highland fling."
"You'll never be that old, Mother."
"Donald, why are you still living at home? Find a nice woman! Find a nice boy!"
"I will, dear, I will."
"Donald, have you seen my glasses?"
"They're on your head, Mother."
"Donald, what a nice doggy. Is she yours?"
"No, Mother, this is Duchess. She's yours."
"Who are you?"
"Your son."
"Who am I?"
He felt a tear tickle the corner of his eye. Her disease had taken a strong woman and reduced her to a diaper-wearing, fetal-curled lump who lost all means of communication at the end. Her fate and, quite possibly, his own, now echoed like a specter in these empty rooms. He couldn't stop the disease and that both terrified and saddened him. Then there was a warm hand on his shoulder and he looked back at Gibb's face, so understanding. It helped to have a good friend who also had ghosts in his past.
"You okay, Duck?" Gibbs asked quietly. Ducky looked at the smiling faces of the team and sniffed as did Gibbs. He knew all too well the pain of loss. "You ready to go?"
"I believe that I am, Jethro. There are far too many ghosts here to suit me." He blinked furiously to keep the tears in place. His heart ached at the farewell to his last connection with his mother.
"Who'd want to give this up?" Tony muttered and Jimmy Palmer scowled at him, not that it had much impact. Abby went for the direct approach and smacked Tony with her leather- wearing Hello Kitty purse. "What?"
"Doofus!" Abby scowled at him, wiping a tear from her own eye, and hit him again, her pigtails dancing with her agitated movements. "He's saying goodbye."
"Don't you have any respect for the dead?" Ziva snapped. Even Ziva's eyes were bright with tears.
"Sure… What? Oh, you mean for Mrs. Mallard. I don't know. I'm sort of worried about things up there now." He pointed skyward with a stiff forefinger.
"What's wrong with the second floor? Termites?" Ziva scanned the elegantly-carved ceiling.
"I meant Heaven, David. Not that you'd know." Tony sighed, long and hard. "I mean, she was too good a woman to go down there, but God's going to have his hands full with her."
"What do you mean, Anthony?" Ducky caught that last comment and looked at the young man through the film of moisture.
"Come on, Ducky, you lived with her. Your mother was a formidable woman. I mean if she wasn't afraid of Gibbs, then who? I tell you, she's up there kicking Divine ass even as we speak."
Ducky's mouth dropped open, speechless for a moment."
"Nice, Tony, come to pay our respects and you insult him." McGee shook his head slowly. He paused at Ducky's chuckle, which erupted into full-fledged laugher.
"On the contrary, Timothy, he's right. I just never thought of it that way." Ducky wiped tears from his eyes, tears now from happiness rather than sadness. He held up his glass, "Auf Schottland! May the hinges of friendship never rust, or the wings of love lose a feather."
His friends, no, his family, gathered around him and Ducky was very happy for he knew that, with them, he would never truly be alone. And that suited Ducky just fine.